Just call me Tume

Sorry about no recent updates; honestly, I have been either too busy or too lazy. I’ll try to do better in the future. Let’s see, since I last wrote…

Well, I have been given a South Africa name, Tumelo, Tume for short (I hope I am spelling it right), which means happy, as in they are happy to have me here and I am happy to be here. Things have been going nicely at school, I placed my grade 10 classes in new groups, and there has been much improvement. A few of my learners are trying to teach me Sepedi, and I am a terrible student of languages I have to say, but they are very patient. Also, I have been helping a few grade 12s from last year get ready for the matric in May. In addition, I visited another closeby high school Kwamhlanga High School and did a lecture on polymers that was kind of fun.

As for my move, I am living with a very nice woman, Poughie, (her son Karabo is away at boarding school), and we get along great. She is a great cook, and she is kind about my cooking skills, and we both love Generations ( the soapie from my last blog; here’s an update :the girl and her baby left town and did not marry the chief’s son, Samuel. The other young couple, Ajax and ?, are back together, but now the girl’s parents are getting divorced and she doesn’t know yet. And there is some big scandal about videotapes and embezzlement that I’m still trying to figure out, as well as one guy (who has new baby and a fiancé) is about to have an affair with this other woman… to be continued)

OK back to real life.. I finally did some real traveling. I visited the University of Pretoria’s Sci-Enza and met with the directors there, it was a very nice afternoon and I made some great contacts. I definitely will be back to take my learners there on a trip. They are planning on starting a new program “First Female in Family”; it’s to encourage families to support their daughters’ education. The idea behind the program is that research has shown that educating women passes more education on to the family and community in a broader way thaneducated males. It was a very interesting afternoon.

After this mini-trip was my venture into the Free State province to Clarens (see pics above). A beautiful place with gorgeous views in every direction and a little art galleries throughout the town. A fantastic place to visit; there is this cave church which is amazing, people travel from all over to go there, and then there is Golden Gate Park with breathtaking views. As pretty as the pics are, you really have to see it with your own eyes, think COLOR! No wonder artists love to come here.

Pity Party for One, Please

They said it would happen, and this past Wednesday, it did. I felt homesick. To put this in context Wednesday was “a day”. My grade 10s still were having trouble telling the identifying distance, speed, and acceleration (for the 3rd week in a row), and even my grade 11s were chatty and distracted. It was hot, and I was in a bad mood. However, before you start feeling bad for me, on Thursday things turned around. Teachers in the staff room and I talked politics and education, and one teacher has offered to be my official tour guide to South Africa (he is putting together maps and an itinerary this weekend and other teachers can join in too). My co-teacher for Physical Sciences (she teaches grade 12s) and I finally had time to look at our portfolios, and we did a lab together in the new laboratory on Young’s modulus. I helped her with this grade 12 practical investigation (lab), and she is going to help me next week with my grade 10s lab on acceleration of gravity. Even my grade 11s finally seem to get gravitational fields. (My grade 10s still struggling with velocity, ARRGH!, but you can’t have everything.) Overall, a much better day.
And things kept getting better…
Friday was Athletics Day (track and field day) no classes, kind of like a field day, except the winners go onto the next level of competition against other local schools. The day began with assembly, there was some singing and the Lord’s Prayer, then students went to their teams: Cheetahs, Zebras, Bulls, Lions.

It took some time to get things started, but everyone was relaxed and had a good time. There was a tent for teachers to cool off and a large stereo system with speakers that played music throughout the day (learners were the DJs). At noon, we took a short break for lunch, which was catered for the staff (chicken , beans, and lots of pap). Then, the day ended with the King and Queens of the Cheetah team walking around with the crowd cheering, and final sprinting and relay events. The winner… the Zebras!

And better…
Saturday, the Aphane family and I went to Bela Bela Warmbaths (sadly, Abram had a principal’s workshop). The Warmbaths is a resort area with hot springs. It was basically a waterpark with one of the main pools coming from the hotsprings. The day was perfect, blue skies, not too hot. We took a picnic, swam, went on waterslides, and the girls even went on a zipline (I chickened out, maybe next time) and rode a mechanical bull. I began teaching Refilwe to float on her back and swim a little, and she did great for her first try, she is fearless. It was a really fun day since I love the water, and the views on the drive there were amazing. We passed a whole field of sunflowers in bloom and the mountains were green with trees, and I saw ostriches too. Tomorrow is moving day for me, I move into my new home, just 3 houses down, so I will have my own room. For now, I’ll pack up and watch TV (Saturday night they play American movies).
[side note: TV here: lots of soccer, the Africa Cup is still going on; I watched the exciting end of the semi-finals as Ghana took 3rd place, 4-2 over the Ivory Coast. Also, I have started watching this nighttime soap called Generations. This week a young couple was broken up by her father who didn’t like her dating a rapper, and another couple that was engaged broke up because the man’s uncle told the girl that she would never be suitable to marry a chief’s son since she does not come from a good family, has no education, and doesn’t even know who the father of her baby is. Stay tuned for next week’s events.]

Here Comes the Sun

It finally stopped raining, the sun is out and it’s hot!
This is more what I expected. It feels like summer, in the sun it’s very hot, but in the shade (even in classrooms) it’s not bad. And definitely not as humid as NY or MD.

As for my Roadworthy saga…
Monday morning, I headed back to the Traffic Dept for my registration.
(Emily my student teacher, yeah Emily!, covered my classes again. She goes back to university this week, and she will be missed.) At the Traffic Dept, I arrive and get in line, but at 8:30 am, it doesn’t open. Yep, computers are still down.
I head back to teach my mid-morning classes, and then I have a long break and lunch, so I head back, not so optimistically, to the Traffic Dept. When I arrive the computers are working and there’s hardly any line! In ½ hour, I am roadworthy!
PS On Wed, I received my first traffic ticket for not having my registration ticket displayed in my window. 250 Rand (about $35). Traffic police and tickets seem to be big here; I see them EVERYWHERE, and they do random pull-overs; that’s how I got my ticket.

Other than that, things here are fine. School is going well. My 11th graders turned in their first lab reports, and my 10th graders had their first test. Also, a group of 12th graders has asked me to teach them after school to prepare for their Matric exams (to get into University), and I am giving a lecture on atomic spectra and lasers to the 12th graders during their science class this coming Monday. I hope it goes well.

A note to my students in NYC… they have Saturday Academy here too!! Only they have it all year, it’s already started for some classes.
As for me, I think I will just work a few Saturdays at the end of each term (they have 4 terms here).